Alcenya Crowley
{{Infobox person
| name = Alcenya Crowley
| image =
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| birth_name = Alcenya McElwain
| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|04|26}}
| birth_place = St. Paul, Minnesota, United States
| death_date = September 12, 2010
| death_place = Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
| nationality = American, Canadian
| other_names = Alcenya Crowley-Morrow
| occupation = Educator
Activist
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Alcenya Crowley (April 3, 1926 – September 12, 2010), born Alcenya McElwain, was an American-born Canadian educator and activist.
Early life and education
Alcenya McElwain was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of William McElwain.{{Cite web|title=Alcenya McElwain from Ward 12 St. Paul in 1940 Census District 90-294|url=https://www.archives.com/1940-census/alcenya-mcelwain-mn-44818731|access-date=2020-06-02|website=1940 US Census}} She was educated at the Minneapolis School of Business. She later studied marketing at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and earned a degree in political science from York University.
Career
Crowley worked in a law office, in an accountant's office, at the Metropolitan Children's Aid Society, and then as a secretary for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She later taught business for the Toronto District School Board, retiring in 1991.{{cite book|last=Hill|first=Lawrence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8EFw7_bh0YEC&pg=PA35|title=Women of Vision: The Story of the Canadian Negro Women's Association, 1951–1976|year=1996|isbn=1895642183|pages=35–36|publisher=Dundurn }}
Crowley joined the Canadian Negro Women's Association (CANEWA),{{Cite book|last1=Wane|first1=Njoki Nathani|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l7PqAgAAQBAJ&q=Alcenya+Crowley&pg=PA40|title=Back to the Drawing Board: African-Canadian Feminisms|last2=Deliovsky|first2=Katerina|last3=Lawson|first3=Erica|date=2002|publisher=Canadian Scholars’ Press|isbn=978-1-894549-17-2|pages=40|language=en}} later the Congress of Black Women of Canada. She served as vice-president from 1957 to 1958 and as president from 1959 to 1960. She chaired CANEWA's first Calypso Carnival, drawing on the cultures of the organization's Caribbean-born members. She represented CANEWA at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.{{cite journal|year=2013|title=African Canadian Anti-Discrimination Activism and the Transnational Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1965|url=https://www.erudit.org/revue/jcha/2013/v24/n2/1025083ar.html|journal=Journal of the Canadian Historical Association|volume=24|issue=3|pages=386–424}}
Personal life
She married a Canadian podiatrist, William Richard "Buddy" Crowley, in 1951, and moved to Toronto with him.
Crowley was widowed when her husband died in 1963;{{Cite news|date=1963-03-29|title=Obituaries|pages=5|work=The Windsor Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52640192/obituaries/|access-date=2020-06-02|via=Newspapers.com}} she died in Credit Valley Hospital in 2010, at the age of 84.{{cite news |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thestar/obituary.aspx?n=alcenya-crowley-morrow&pid=145363399 |title=Alcenya Crowley-Morrow |newspaper=Toronto Star |date=September 15, 2010}}
References
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External links
- {{Find a Grave|id=152683834|name=}}
- Funké Omotunde Aladejebi, [https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10315/33442/Aladejebi_Funke_O_2016_PhD.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y "'Girl You Better Apply to Teachers’ College': The History of Black Women Educators in Ontario, 1940s –1980s"] (Ph.D. dissertation, York University 2016).
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Category:Canadian schoolteachers
Category:Canadian civil rights activists
Category:Canadian women civil rights activists
Category:American emigrants to Canada
Category:Toronto Metropolitan University alumni
Category:York University alumni